seanrichardryan wrote:It's a unique postition- flipping a polluted dump to another developer.

Seriously. And it's going to cost a pretty penny to get middled like that, but it must be worth it to the developer to free up their available cash on hand and put it all towards the redevelopment itself, and not the cost of cleanup. I kind of figured the clean-up costs would be fairly negligible compared to the overarching redevelopment project -- no more than maybe $10M, but I really have no idea whatsoever. If it includes the demo as well then I can see the costs escalating. But again, the only thing I can think of that makes sense why the developer chose to have another contractor do the initial demo and clean-up is to maneuver and free up finances.

Sean: Did you find anything out about how this demolition would have bypassed the HPC? Who decides if a demolition is subject to HPC approval? Did they vote on Totino's last year? Everything about this process and the HPC in general just seems...not completely objective.

Well, buildings are either periodically put on lists during a staff sweep (as was done with historic resource list in 2008) or they are nominated by a sitting HPC member. I can't recall this building ever being mentioned. It wasn't common knowledge that it is/was the streetcar barn. I'll look around and see what I can find.

Kauffman, of DLC, said his firm is working with the Nicollet Island-East Bank Neighborhood Association to gauge reaction to the firm’s plans for the site.

Victor Grambsch, president of the association, characterized a recent meeting with DLC as “very pleasant, but it was kind the way you’d characterize a first-date kind of meeting. No decisions were made and, as far as I know, there’s nothing binding that DLC is going to build something there. It’s pretty nebulous right now.”

The Association favors taller transit- and pedestrian-oriented buildings and “quality construction” as opposed to a series of low-lying structures, he added.

Well that's pretty encouraging. We still haven't heard definitively if DLC is also purchasing the vacant block to the east. First & First owns that property as well. The Strib story mentioned 5.4 acres, which would be both blocks. Was the eastern block just the parking lot for Superior Plating employees? That might explain why no media outlets have mentioned it specifically, other than as "the Superior Plating property".

Business thought: since the portion of 4th St on the north side of the RR trench is already elevated above RR grade, how cool would that be if they could get a section of the old St. Anthony Parkway bridge and lay it across the trench here? It's private ROW on both sides, so that would be a difficult negotiation with the townhouse owners association to the north. They probably like their peace & quiet and wouldn't be too welcoming of "outside" bike & ped traffic.